Thing #15

Blog about your experiences with Skype: I have used Skype before to talk to my friends who are overseas in Asia. I have also used Skype with Rachelle and Cindy to chat and talk to them about class. It was easy to skype. I just had to add the person's name onto my list and then I could begin calling. The only issues I had were the computer would freeze sometimes. The chat feature also makes it easy to talk if the video is not working well. When I was chatting though I put my status as Skype me so I was getting calls and messages from other people I did not know. That bothered me a lot so I changed my status. That is something to be careful about because if it were my students I would not want them talking to strangers.

Ideas for classroom use: As I looked at the 50 ways to use Skype in the classroom, it gave a lot of great ideas I had never thought of like.....
-author visit
-virtual field trip
-student performances
-learning from other students in other countries
-online classes
-parent teacher conferences
-teaching feedback
-professional development

I can start using these ideas! :)